Spoiling
Spoiling Spoiling allows a vampire to hex a subject or her possessions with a curse of blood. As the vampire's capability with this blood hex improves, her power becomes more and more refined. A novice vampire needs to brush a handful of blood onto her victim just to impose a hindering curse, but a skilled practitioner of Spoiling can hide a small spot on a subject's coat or skin and plague her with several nights of misfortune and weakness. Unlike many Disciplines, Spoiling consists of only a single power that becomes more dangerous as the practitioner's command of the Discipline increases. Kindred of all clans and covenants may potentially learn this Discipline, if a teacher can be found. In some cases, the first dot of Spoiling can be learned through happenstance or personal experimentation. Spoiling is considered an out-of-Clan Discipline for all vampires. With each dot of Spoiling purchased, the vampire must define which Attribute she is capable of affecting. :Cost: '1 Vitae :'Dice Pool: 'Stamina + Occult + Spoiling versus the subject's Resolve + Blood Potency :'Action: '''Instant and contested; resistance is reflexive. '''Roll Results :Dramatic Failure: 'The character loses control of her own hex and its malignant effects interact disastrously with her own Vitae. The character loses a number of Vitae equal to the penalty she was to bestow on the subject. :'Failure: 'The character fails to invoke the curse, and knows it. The Vitae used to activate this power is wasted. :'Success: 'The character's blood seeps from her hand and sticks there, charged with the malignant curse, until it is applied to a subject. To touch the subject and deliver the curse, the character may be required to succeed in a touch attack, which is an action unto itself. The Vitae carrying the curse retains this charge for the rest of the scene. The subject of the curse suffers a penalty to all dice pools involving a single Attribute for as long as the vampire's Vitae remains on her body or on any article of clothing she wears, or for a number of nights equal to the vampire's dots in Spoiling, whichever comes first. This penalty is equal to the character's dots in Spoiling. :'Exceptional Success: 'No special effect. A Condition may be applied in addition to the effects of the curse. 'Blood Solutions All the powers of blood alchemy require the practitioner to shed her own Vitae (represented by the Solution's cost) into the mixture. Vitae is the medium through which the powers of blood alchemy are transmitted. That Vitae may be hidden within other substances, but it is the Vitae that matters. The subject of a Solution's power is always the being that consumes it. A Solution retains its power for a number of nights equal to the successes achieved on the activation roll to create the mixture. It is assumed that those who drink a Solution will attempt to resist its effects. All Solutions therefore involve a contested action, putting the potency of the blood alchemist's sanguine infusion against the Resolve, Stamina, or Composure of the drinker, to determine if a subject is affected. Resistance is always reflexive. Anyone drinking a Solution may choose to forego resistance and simply allow themselves to be affected by its powers. ''The Bottled Command (Dominate •, Spoiling •) :'Cost: 1 Vitae :'Dice Pool: '''Intelligence + Expression + Dominate versus subject's Resolve + Composure. This devotion inflicts the Mesmerized condition with a pre-set command with no more than four words. Once the command finishes, the Condition is resolved and the devotion wears off. This Devotion costs 2 Experiences (10 beats) to learn. ''Draught of Revelation (Majesty ••, Spoiling ••) :'Cost: '''2 Vitae :'Dice Pool: 'Manipulation + Persuasion + Majesty versus Resolve + Blood Potency This devotion inflicts the Charmed Condition, treating the number of successes rolled on the activation as the number of dots of Majesty, to a maximum of the instilling vampire's own. This lasts for a number of hours equal to the instilling vampire's Blood Potency. Furthermore, the penalty to detect true intentions is based on the instilling vampire's Majesty dots at the time of activating this devotion. This Devotion costs 3 Experiences (15 beats) to learn. ''Intuitive Reaction (Auspex •, Spoiling •) :'Cost: '''1 Vitae :'Dice Pool: 'Wits + Investigation + Auspex versus subject's Stamina + Blood Potency The Beast in Kindred sometimes allows them to detect enemies far in advance of the man's awareness. Distilling this primal hair-trigger mentality, the vampire creates a potion capable of enhancing the target's reaction time to threats to nigh-superhuman levels. For a number of nights equal to the vampire's dots in Spoiling, the subject feels constantly on edge. Not necessarily ready to snap at a given moment, but jittery and jumpy on a regular basis. This adds a number of dice equal to the vampire's dots in Auspex to any attempts to detect ambushes, as well as half that (rounded down) to their Initiative rating. This Devotion costs 3 Experiences (15 beats) to learn. ''Liquid Memory (Dominate ••••, Spoiling ••••) :'Cost: '''2 Vitae :'Dice Pool: 'Intelligence + Expression + Dominate versus subject's Resolve + Blood Potency The False Memory Condition is inflicted as per ''The Lying Mind, dependent upon the memory encoded. If the subject succeeds on the contested action to resist the memory he is still aware of it, but knows full well that it is not his own. This Devotion costs 3 Experiences (15 beats) to learn. ''Sanguine Strength (Vigor • to •••, Spoiling • to •••) :'Cost: '2 Vitae :'Dice Pool: 'Strength + Athletics + Vigor versus subject's Stamina + Blood Potency The Solution confers the passive effects of Vigor, including enhanced jumping ability, at a level equal to that of the Devotion. For each success on the activation roll, another 'bonus dot' of Strength can be suspended in the brew, to a maximum of three bonus dots. The effects of this Solution last for the remainder of the scene in which it is ingested, and a given subject can only be affected by one volume of Sanguine Strength at a time. During this time, subjects - even mortals and ghouls - are prone to a kind of violent tantrum that weakly approximates frenzy, and must test for frenzy as a vampire would. She retainers her own mind during this tantrum, but suffers a -2 penalty to Mental actions for the rest of the scene, and is gripped by an overwhelming violent urge. This Devotion costs 1, 2, or 3 Experiences (5, 10, or 15 beats) to learn at one, two, and three dots of Vigor respectively. A character may upgrade this power to a higher level later by paying the difference in beats. 'Source Spoiling is from Ordo Dracul, pp 205-9. This conversion to the Blood & Smoke rules set is by Myka Dunn. Category:Unique Disciplines Category:Translations Category:Spoiling Category:Devotions